Problem capturing DV and burning to DVD

[Project Director]

I just attempted to convert from DV tape to DVD for the first time. I used my Sony TRV33E DV camera hooked up to the computer using fire wire. My computer is a P4 2.4, with Pioneer 107rw burner. I used Ulead Movie Factory 3 SE for the capturing and encoding to MPEG2, then created the menus etc. and burnt the DVD. All worked fine, except that the picture quality is poor. I'm not sure how to describe the loss of quality - it is not a smooth moving picture, rather a disjointed jerky sort of image. Perhaps some frames have been dropped, or there was a loss of quality in the compression. Can anybody suggest what I have done wrong, or what step in the process I may have left out? Or could it just be that the Ulead software (a freebie with the camera) is crap and not worth using?

[Thomas Anderson]

Generally it seems people have problems with the all in one capture/conversion programs. I use WinDV to transfer the DV AVI files to my PC, and then TMPGEnc XPress to encode to MPEG-2.

I used to use an all in one program and I ended up with a lot of drop frames and low quality video, even if it saves time the resultant quality isn't usually worth it.

[mikesbytes]

The jerkyness is probably due to dropped frames on transfer to computer.

WinDV will confirm whether any dropped frames occured. And its got memory buffering which will prevent it occuring.

[BJ_M]

what settings did you use to compress ?

[Project Director]

I've now downloaded Win DV and TMPGENC Plus 2.5. Now I've got another problem. I already had a trial version of TMPGENC downloaded, and the trial period had expired. So I went to the manufacturer's site and paid for a license, then I registered the serial number online. Problem now is, when I try to use the software, at the point where I try to start the encoding process, I simply get a message that says the trial period has expired and it goes no further. What do I have to do (in addition to paying for a license and registering the serial number online) to get the software out of the trial mode into the fully operational mode which I have paid for?

[thecoalman]

I don't know specifically about that app but look under help menu for registration. There's usually a register link somewhere in one of the menus.